From abandoned baby to successful ecopreneur, this Ahmedabad Gandhian has defied odds

By Jolly De Azad

If it takes a village to raise a child, it definitely takes strong female role models to raise a power-woman – one who was abandoned as an infant, but who grew up to become an award-winning sustainability champion and architect. That’s the story of Shailini Sheth Amin, who has recently published a memoir titled Fit In, Stand Out, Walk: Stories from a Pushed Away Hill (2024, INR 399).

In simple prose, the 71-year-old Ahmedabad-based entrepreneur shares details of her unusual upbringing and remarkable family – especially its strong, independent, resilient women who defied societal norms, acted on their own values, and established identities for themselves in a male-dominated world.

Amin is the founder of ethical lifestyle label Moral Fibre. With a background in architecture, community projects and finance, she continues to focus on promoting energy efficiency, sustainable practices and heritage conservation.

The memoir narrates the story of Neelima (Amin), a baby less than a year-and-half old whose father abandons her in a park in Mumbai. The child is spotted at a rescue home by a 28-year-old social worker, Surabhi, a single woman who adopts the infant despite the challenges involved.

Thus, Neelima becomes part of the Sheth family, and is brought up in their home. One by one, the author introduces us to the cast of family members and notably its women. Their stories are inspirational even when seen from a 21st-century perspective.

“This was not a commune; it was a family of women with a matriarch,” says Amin. “A family that broke the stereotypes in an age where society was steeped in set norms about women’s domesticity, daily rituals, male supremacy, and all other social constructs. These pioneering women must have faced censure, challenges, and discrimination at all levels.”

The first female icon is Manek, who lived in the first half of the 20th century. She was just 21 years old with two little daughters when her wealthy social-activist husband died, leaving almost all his property to an education trust. Instead of wallowing in despair, she decided to become the instrument for his vision of educating the youth in their Gujarati town. In 1912, she set up a residential school in his name, Sheth CN Vidyalaya, which stands to this day in Ahmedabad.

Upon her husband’s death, Manek assumed the role of head of the family, and also took over the responsibility of her step-daughter from her husband’s first wife, and her husband’s elder brother’s three children who had lost their father earlier. She also adopted and raised her newborn niece, Surabhi, when her brother lost his wife at childbirth.

Manek’s younger daughter, Indumati, a Gandhian, freedom fighter, and reformist, continued her parents’ legacy by dedicating her life to their vision for education. She extended their dream by setting up Manekba Vinay Vihar in the late 1950s. It is an educational institute in the rural district of Adalaj, named after her mother. Indumati also served the state of Gujarat as Education Secretary and later as Education Minister.

Then comes Surabhi, the author’s adopted mother. Gentle and thoughtful, Indumati’s young cousin Surabhi was an art lover, scholar and social worker.

“She was a mother, a father, a teacher, a mentor and a spiritual guru,” Amin tells eShe about Surabhi. “She was very kind and loving not just to me as a child, but to people all around her and the community. She was a person with vision and a strong moral code. She was a hard-working woman-soldier, strict taskmaster, a person with self-belief, and a confident leader.” Sadly, Surabhi died of cancer when Neelima was just nine years old, and Indumati took over the responsibility of raising Neelima.

In addition to the Sheth ladies, there is Gajra, who held a significant role in shaping young Neelima’s life. Gajra, a cousin, moved into the Sheth house with her widowed mother when she was very young. Tragically, Gajra herself became a widow at the age of nine, before she could even leave for her husband’s home. She became a lifelong companion and strong support for the busy Indumati by taking over all household responsibilities.

However, as Amin explains, “None of the mother or parent figures in my life were perfect. Their childhood traumas, disjointed relationships, family connection and lack of them must have been difficult. They had big losses, deaths of fathers and mothers in their childhoods. They were victims of their own circumstances. Their hopes, fears, dreams and expectations must have shattered them to the core at times. In spite of all that, they had a sense of meaning, strength and peace in them. They were survivors.”

The family was deeply interested in the arts, literature, Sanskrit, classical music, dance, spiritual discourses, and films. “I had kind of a quest for connecting with emotions expressed in different ways and forms like space, light, colours, textures and olfactory experiences,” says Amin, who trained as an architect and designer.

And yet, for all their emphasis on education, no one in the family forced the young Neelima to study. “There was an understanding that I would study to the best of my ability. When I got very good marks, of course, my family would be delighted. But there was never a feeling that I was a good girl because I was doing well in studies; there was no connection between love and achievement. When parents see their children only as an extension of their dreams and aspirations, it is painful. A child is God’s gift; we remain trustees and allow the child to flourish,” says Amin.

The Sheth family was also greatly influenced by Gandhian thought and philosophy. So much so, that after a 35-year-career as a successful architect focusing on energy-efficient buildings, Amin picked the promotion of khadi as her social enterprise, based on Gandhi’s vision of Swavalamban – self-sufficiency. She set up Moral Fibre when she was 53 years old.

“Gandhi compared spinning yarn on charkha to meditation. He encouraged people to wear clothes only from what they help produce,” she says. “One can see that this changes everything! There is no scope of exploitation of labour, no question of large carbon footprint, no encouraging of greed, overspending and throwaway culture.”

Moral Fibre does not run any factory; rather, they support and empower traditional independent artisan groups. The fabrics are produced within 250 kilometres of Ahmedabad in rural cooperatives of thousands of hand-spinners and hand-weavers, without using electricity. “Our fabrics are the next generation of khadi in quality – almost carbon-neutral and allergy-free,” asserts Amin.

The fabrics are then given to independent artisan units for dyeing, printing, finishing and tailoring. Along with local markets, the fabrics are exported to 18 countries. A Fair Trade organisation, Moral Fibre has helped generate livelihoods for over 2,500 artisans in Gujarat.

But the book is not just about Amin’s philosophy or enterprise. It also dwells on the more challenging aspects of her personal life: falling in love with an unlikely match, having an abortion, becoming a mother, getting a divorce, marrying again and building friendships with her husband’s children. It discusses her transitions from one career path to another and living across the globe, from Ahmedabad to Pondicherry and UK. The memoir includes stories of abandonment, doubt, bisexuality, narcissism, and domestic abuse.

“I believe that marriage is not a crutch,” Amin says. “One has to deal with personal issues positively and decisively by oneself. Being strong, confident, loving, and grateful is a personal choice.”

Though abandoned by fate as an infant, Amin rode the waves and crests of her life with her personal choices, fitting in, standing out and finally walking into a destiny of own creation.